4-14. The Aenar.

THE PLOT

With the Tellarites and Andorians having made an alliance for the first time in history, the Romulan mission to destabilize their region of space has backfired badly. But the Romulans have a last push to salvage the situation. A second drone ship is ready. As soon as the first drone is repaired and the pilot is recovered, both ships will launch with a mission to destroy Enterprise!

Meanwhile, T'Pol has traced the drone's brainwave patterns. The closest known match is Andorian, but Shran corrects that statement. The brainwave is actually that of an Aenar, an Andorian subspecies that lives in the coldest part of the planet. Archer and Shran beam down to make contact with the reclusive Aenar, to try to identify the drone pilot. They find Jhamel (Alexandra Lydon), the sister of the Aenar who was abducted by the Romulans. She wants to go with them to help her brother. But the Aenar elders oppose this plan, and are willing to use their telepathic abilities to keep Archer and Shran from finding the way out to return to Enterprise!

CHARACTERS

Capt. Archer: A bit less in the foreground in this episode than has been the case, though he and Jeffrey Combs continue to show how well they play opposite each other. Beyond that, Archer is in "captain" mode for the entire episode, with other characters being allowed the spotlight for a change.

T'Pol: Though it's clearly conveyed to the viewers that she still has feelings for Trip, she is determined not to show it. Working closely with Trip on the telepathy chair, she focuses with absolute intensity on the work. She insists on performing multiple experiments to see if the chair works, even when it becomes clear that it isn't safe.

Trip: After the battle with the drones, he discovers that there was a very minor problem with the chair he constructed. He worries that his feelings for T'Pol are distracting him from his work.  This leads to a genuinely very good scene with Archer, which ends the episode on a cliffhanger of a different sort - an emotional one, which leaves us wondering what will happen with Trip now.

Shran: Though he doesn't get anything as intense as the "blood" scene in United, Jeffrey Combs continues to impress. I like the way he plays Shran's loss of balance. Both before and after the accident scene, Combs remembers that he is off-balance and walks just a bit off-kilter, as though constantly dizzy. He is harsh in his dealings with the Aenar, but surprisingly compassionate in his one-on-one conversation with Jhamel. As the episode goes along, seeds are planted for a potential romance with the Aenar girl, one which we probably would have seen blossom had the series survived.

Hot Alien Space Babe of the Week: Alexandra Lydon is Jhamel, the Aenar who agrees to go with Archer and Shran to try to help her brother. She seems to know early on that the most she can really do is help to stop him from causing further destruction. She works as a character for two reasons: First, because she is rebelling against her culture, eager to see something beyond the Aenar city. Second, because Lydon is very appealing, and the bond she forms with Shran is convincing even with limited screen time to develop it. Though the Aenar themselves are not particularly interesting, Jhamel, is a character who would have been well worth a return visit.

Romulans: Valdore (Brian Thompson) reflects that all Romulans are soldiers, "from the moment (they) are born." He recalls when he was a senator, how he made the mistake of questioning whether conquest was truly in the best long-term interests of the Empire, and how he was expelled for daring to question. He does not tell that story to evoke sympathy, but as an object lesson: If you're a Romulan, you're a soldier. Forget that at your peril. Refreshingly, this look at the character's more thoughtful side does not result in him abruptly renouncing warfare or anything. He is just as ruthless at the end as he was at the beginning. What the scene does accomplish is to make Valdore into something more than just a 2-dimensional baddie, so that we feel for him when he faces the inevitable price of failure at the end.

THOUGHTS

The conclusion to the "Alliance" arc, The Aenar isn't nearly as good as the two preceding installments. It feels as if there was maybe another episode in here. Perhaps, given that the initial drone plot was resolved last episode, this should have been broken up into two 2-parters, with one or two standalone episodes separating them?

I'd readily trade the likes of Daedalus for more screen time to flesh out the Aenar as a culture. Let Archer and Shran's visit to the Aenar city be a full episode. Have a second episode devoted to the confrontation with the drones. In that way, both plot strands could be effectively explored. As it stands, both end up feeling rushed, with easy resolutions to the problems. The Aenar don't want Jhamel leaving the city? Simple: Jhamel tells them she wants to go, and they say, "Oh, okay then." Trip's jerry-rigged chair could cause brain damage? Simple: Jhamel says, "I want to try again," and everything's fine. The drones are too powerful for Enterprise? Simple... Well, I'll leave off spoiling the end, save to say that it's basically predictable.

There is still a lot to enjoy in The Aenar. It's never dull and it never feels like a throwaway - which immediately puts it ahead of most of Season Two. Mike Vejar's direction is as confident as ever, and the series continues to excel at using CGI to establish genuinely beautiful-looking alien environments. The underground city of the Aenar is downright gorgeous, and would not be visually out of place in a feature film. Finally, it is nice to have an episode in which the emotional center is not Archer, but instead Shran.

It's vaguely unsatisfying, though, and I put that down to the rushed pace and the overall predictability. It's barely a conclusion to the arc, most of which seemed to be concluded at the end of United. It's also not a terribly satisfying episode on its own. There's no sense of jeopardy, and the stakes feel much smaller. It's adequate entertainment, but it could have been and should have been so much better.

Rating: 6/10.

Overall Rating for the "Alliance" arc: 8/10.

Previous Episode: United
Next Episode: Affliction

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2-12. The Catwalk.

THE PLOT

The Enterprise is orbiting an uninhabited Class M planet that is teaming with plant and animal life (um, technically that doesn't make it "uninhabited," but I'll give them that one). Archer and Trip are looking forward to combining a survey of this world with some needed R & R. Then an alien ship hails them. A deadly radiation storm is on its way. The alien captain recommends they immediately go to Warp Seven to escape the storm. There's only one problem; the Enterprise's maximum speed is Warp Five.

With no choice left but to weather the storm, Archer orders a particularly well-shielded maintenance shaft be converted into temporary quarters to house the entire crew for the duration. "The catwalk" proves to be endurable, if uncomfortable. But when a power surge forces Trip into a radiation suit for a trip to engineering, he discovers that their friendly alien saviors are hiding their own agenda.


CHARACTERS

Capt. Archer: Scott Bakula gets some of his best material in a while, as Archer is pushed into a desperate solution to save his crew. I enjoyed the scenes of Archer mingling with the crew, exchanging a few friendly words with his people to try to keep their morale up. Bakula gives a restrained, relaxed, highly likable performance in these scenes. And by pulling back on the "tense captain" mannerisms, he makes Archer's transition to crisis mode in the episode's final act that much more effective.

T'Pol: T'Pol's buried compassion shows itself when she recalls a Vulcan ship's encounter with a similar storm. She observes that the Vulcan ship was "nearly destroyed." Archer, upon researching, discovers that the Vulcan ship was destroyed, with all hands on board. Confronted with this, T'Pol insists that she "remembered incorrectly," not willing to admit that she sidestepped the truth to reduce the crew's fears. We also discover another bit of her background, as she tells Archer of a Vulcan ritual in which she was dumped in the desert and left to survive on her own for ten days. For all her expertise, T'Pol is not comfortable mixing with the general crew, and seems genuinely surprised when Trip says he's glad to see her at the "movie night" at the close of the episode, and invites her to join them for future ones.

Trip: Tripcomes up with the solution for the emergency quarters in the catwalk, enabling the entire crew to survive the storm. His preparations provide one of the series' few good Mayweather scenes as well, as Travis reminds Trip that they will need a toilet - something Trip admits he had not considered. Trip is given the discovery of the alien infiltration. Then, because he has already been exposed, he is unable to directly participate in keeping the warp reactor offline, and is forced to talk T'Pol and Reed through doing what he'd clearly much rather be doing himself.

Reed: Reed is susceptible to motion sickness, but his fear of acknowledging weaknesses leads him to cover this up. His mode of coping is to become extremely snippy and antagonistic, leading to an argument with Trip over the lack of shower facilities in their emergency quarters. He actually seems much more at ease when the alien infiltration is discovered, and he gets to go out into the ship and do something. Reed has no fear of danger, it seems. He's much more afraid of simple human failures, such as motion sickness and body odor, than he is of invading aliens.


THOUGHTS

A big step up from Precious Cargo. Mike Vejar's direction emphasizes the sense of claustrophobia within the catwalk. There are nice little touches, such as the command compartment being just a touch too small so that Archer has difficulty when he attempts to lie down after his circuit of morale-boosting.

The script, by Mike Sussman and Phyllis Strong, is well-structured. There is just enough development of the crew simply enduring the storm in the catwalk to allow some strong character moments: Reed's motion sickness, T'Pol's "camping trip," Phlox's enjoyment of the small spaces because they remind him of home. Just as the basic catwalk idea has about run its course, the script takes a turn as Trip discovers that aliens have infiltrated the Enterprise, avoiding this episode simply becoming a large-cast version of Shuttlepod One.

The episode succeeds where so many episodes have failed. There actually is a sense of jeopardy. The episode takes time to show the command crew debating options and preparing for the storm. The cast all play their roles with conviction, and we genuinely believe that the storm is as dangerous as they say it is. When the alien military men invade the ship, the rules for the crew going out have been firmly established. The EVA suits will allow them 22 minutes outside the catwalk. There are only three suits, so a direct confrontation is out of the question. If the aliens get the warp engines fully online, the heat from the warp engines will kill the entire crew.

This leads to a taut climax, in which Archer uses misdirection to trick the alien captain.  Mayweather and Trip convey information to T'Pol and Reed to get the warp reactor offline, while Mayweather steers the ship in accordance with Archer's tactics. As that little summary shows, this allows most of the regulars to get a good share in the climax. Even Mayweather gets at least two good scenes, which is two more than he usually gets.

The CGI of the storm is quite impressive. Archer looks out at the approaching storm early in the episode, remarking that he "never expected it to be beautiful." It is quite beautiful, both when seen in approach and when seen enveloping Enterprise. The episode shows various views of it, with blues and whites predominant, and it works both as spectacle and as threat.


Rating: 7/10.

Previous Episode: Precious Cargo
Next Episode: Dawn

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2-6. Marauders.

THE PLOT

Low on supplies (again), the Enterprise comes to a planet whose settlers work processing fuel. Archer is startled at the settlement's condition - very rustic conditions, a lack of basic medical supplies, and a rush to get Enterprise out of there as fast as possible. He is certain something is going on.

Archer's suspicions are confirmed by the arrival of a ship carrying twelve Klingons. The Klingons are marauders, preying on the output of the settlement. They arrive at the start of each drilling season, take everything the colony has, and then leave the settlement to scrape out just enough to survive until the next season. One attempt to fight back against the Klingons resulted in eight deaths. Now, the settlers have accepted their harsh situation.

Archer, in true Gary Cooper fashion, determines that he must help them. But as T'Pol points out, any solution short of killing the Klingons outright will simply make the situation worse once Enterprise leaves. But Archer has an idea, a way to try to provide the settlement with the ability to defend itself...


CHARACTERS

Capt. Archer: After spending the previous episode possessed by the spirit of a petualant 3-year-old, it is a relief to see the real Archer return. Archer's headstrong qualities do remain, of course.  They are part and parcel of his character. But here, his stubbornness is tempered by the thoughtfulness that was absent in the last episode. He doesn't just insist that the situation is unfair and throw a tantrum at any words of caution. He listens to T'Pol's words of caution, and crafts a solution to redress the wrongs being done to the settlement while at the same time working to genuinely improve the entire situation. Bakula is back on solid form, though his performance is perhaps a bit too self-conscious, a bit too aware of the Gary Cooper parallels, for my liking.

T'Pol: As ever, the voice of reason. She actually agrees with Archer this time, that interference in this situation is reasonable - but she cautions that if Enterprise just takes matters into its own hands, then Archer will only make matters worse. This challenges Archer to find a way to let the settlers help themselves. She also proves adept at instructing the settlers to survive a brief brush with hand-to-hand combat.

Trip: Also gets to be a voice of caution for Archer, observing that the plan is "a long shot," though he certainly supports making the effort. He bonds with the moppet of the week, and repairs some of the settlement's broken machinery... and honestly doesn't do much else.

THOUGHTS

Marauders is a "B" episode, bread-and-butter Trek that could about as easily have served as an episode of TOS or Next Generation, with only the most minor of tweaks required. It is a competent episode, though, sturdily constructed and unflashily but steadily directed by veteran Mike Vejar. After the dreadful A Night in Sickbay, competence does come as a relief. Marauders is a thoroughly professional, entertaining bit of television. The sort of thing forgotten quite quickly, but that passes the time well enough while watching.

The plot here is particularly reminiscent of old western plots.  Given that it first aired in Fall 2002, I can't help but draw comparisons between this and the brief, troubled run of a certain other "space western" in Fall 2002. Watching this back-to-back with pretty much any Firefly episode showcases some of the problems with Enterprise. Marauders is competently-scripted, populated by acceptable two-dimensional guest stars who fall into "types" and stay there, and builds to a predictable but enjoyable climax. The plot holds together, with the First Act presenting the problem, the Second Act seeing the characters making a plan to deal with the problem, and the Third Act carrying out that plan and resolving the problem. It's all very competent.

But by 2002, television science fiction was moving beyond simply needing to be competent. Whatever Firefly episode aired in the same week as Marauders would have presented viewers with western tropes in a science fiction setting, only with more memorable characters, sharper dialogue, more distinctive music, and a more immediate directorial style. That's not even mentioning such fare as Battlestar Galactica, which was rising at about the same time. In Marauders, everything is exactly as it appears, no characters have hidden agendas, nothing from this story is likely to echo in future episodes... There isn't the slightest surprise. By 2002, against fresher and braver fare, that just wasn't good enough anymore.

All of which is not to give this episode a negative review. It did its job.  It was relentlessly predictable, but it was solid in both story and presentation, and it provided reasonable entertainment throughout its 42 minutes. But even though it's a perfectly decent, average little episode, it's also one that showcases why Enterprise was floundering. Television science fiction was moving on, and television Trek was not really moving on with it.


Rating: 5/10.

Previous Episode: A Night in Sickbay
Next Episode: The Seventh

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